Tuesday, March 02, 2010

Of lead pipes and stopcocks

Here's a picture I unearthed from 2002 when Clare was gardening at our American home in Fairfax, Virginia. Something to do with Rhubarb I recall - it does not look a particularly pleasant experience.

I got a call today from our builder as I was toiling over a hot laptop. He couldn't do the bathroom in our house in Wells because the internal stopcock was defective. They couldn't fix that because the outside main stopcock was buried in earth and they couldn't get through. I would have to call Bristol Water and get a man out.

The perils of buying a house which has seen no maintenance for four decades! Turns out there's a five day window for Bristol Water to attend so nothing can be done until they show up and allow us to turn off the water. And, the builder explained, the plumber found that the entry pipes were lead. Yes, move into our house in Wells and every cup of tea will lower your IQ. I don't think Clare's participation in the Wells U3A is consistent with such an early slide into dementia and God knows what it will do for the fortunes of Interweave Consulting.